Into the West
by Jetainia
Summary: In the end, there was only one choice.


**Forum Block  
**Stacked With: MC4A (ToS; FPC; SoW; SS; Shipping War); Hogwarts  
Individual Challenges: Short Jog; Yellow Ribbon; Yellow Ribbon Redux; Founders Four (Y); Olden Times (Y); Scaly Tales (Y); Misunderstood; Bloomin' Time; More than England; Tissue Warning; Old Shoes (Y); Two Cakes!; Themes & Things B  
Representations: Salazar Slytherin; Helga Hufflepuff; Salazar leaving Hogwarts  
Bonus Challenges: Unwanted Advice; Tomorrow's Shade; Second Verse (Not a Lamp); Chorus (Wabi Sabi); Demo (Most Human Bean; Hot Apple; Creature Feature; Forked Path)  
Prompt: Voodoo Magic, Task 1: Write about having to make a difficult choice.  
Word count: 1,038

* * *

Trembling fingers traced the image of a lavender sprig. The mark had gained colour only recently and he was about to cause that colour to bleed out. The slight sound of scales moving over stone made him look up and see the basilisk that had been his companion since his youth. Aurora wound herself around him as she had done so often before and he felt himself relax a tiny bit.

No matter how bad he felt, the presence of Aurora and a hug from her made him feel better. She flicked her tongue out to touch the mark he had been tracing and he let out a broken sob. The mark and Aurora were some of the few things that had made his life bearable and he was causing pain to both.

"_Why do you weep_?" Aurora asked.

Salazar brushed his hand over her large head and turned his arm over so the lavender would stop looking at him accusingly. "_I do nothing but cause pain, Aurora. Even to those I profess to love. I cannot stay my mind_."

"_I will kill anyone who dares think to make you less than you are_." Aurora's hiss was full of outrage, small flecks of deadly venom dripped from her mouth as she prepared to attack those who had harmed Salazar.

"_They are not making me less_," Salazar quickly assured, stroking Aurora's scales to calm her. "_It is merely the thoughts I have that I am unable to stay silent on they wish to cut down. Myself and Godric are both strong-willed and if it were not for Helga, I would not care. But I cannot continue causing her such pain. The rift must be dealt with and that is impossible while either of us remain._"

"_Let the other leave_."

Salazar sank down to the floor and let his weight rest on the strong coils of Aurora's body. "_It would solve nothing, save an idiot who is too noble for his own good._"

Aurora was silent. Clearly, she had once again decided human nature to be too confusing and elected to ignore it once determining there was nothing she could do for Salazar (and he turned down her offer of killing whoever he was irate with at the time). Salazar stayed in the cool coils of the large basilisk and thought.

If he stayed, there would be more fighting between himself and Godric. There would be more tension and raised voices—both of which were detrimental to his lady Helga's health. Helga always insisted she was fine but the looks Rowena sent the fighting males told another story. Rowena was the Potions Mistress of their castle and thus the one who helped Helga when the pain grew too great to bear.

If he left, he would be breaking a promise he'd had every intention and desire to keep. Helga would be alone again—abandoned by the man who had sworn to stay by her side for as long as they both lived. Thinking back to the last time he had seen Helga, he knew that she was no longer truly living.

His love was battling back aching pain every day and not saying a word. She was a pale facsimile of what she had once been. Her voice and words were tired, her eyes tight, and her forehead always wrinkled with pain unless Rowena provided a potion. Salazar feared that Helga would soon develop the illness known as the dementor's chill—an illness that seemed to suck the soul out of a person the same way the foul creatures it was named after did.

His choices were to stay and watch Helga fall deeper into shadows or leave and hope he took the shadows with him. His hand fell to the lavender sprig on his wrist again, once more tracing the brilliant colours. The choice boiled down to keeping Helga safe but never seeing her again or watching her fade away when he could have prevented it.

Neither were pleasant but he would rather Helga be free of pain and not see her than see her force back pain every moment of every day. Her gift of empathy was a curse when their home was occupied by Godric and himself.

Salazar clamped his hand around his wrist, hiding the lavender from view as he felt tears well up in his eyes. "I am sorry, my love, my soul," he whispered, knowing Helga couldn't hear him but needing to speak. "This is not what I imagined our future to be. Please, forgive me the hurt I am about to place on you and heal from the harm I have laid upon you so often."

He stood up, Aurora loosening her coils as he stepped away. He did not pack, for there was nothing he needed or wanted in a life outside the castle without Helga. "_Look after her_," he ordered Aurora.

Then he strode out of the chamber below the castle and through the passage that led to the grounds. There he saddled his horse and mounted, not looking back as he directed the animal past the gates of Hogwarts Castle and into the west.

* * *

Helga awoke when a weight landed on her legs. She sat up with a gasp, frightened until she recognised the large form of Aurora. She almost sank back to sleep before the question of why Aurora was lying across her legs struck her like a bolt of lightning and she scrambled out of bed.

Aurora hissed with a disgruntled tone as Helga disturbed her but allowed the witch to move her legs and stand up. Helga went straight to the window, fearing what she might see. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the darkness and she had a brief bubble of hope that she was wrong. And then she saw him. A lone figure was cantering away from the castle on a horse and even from a distance Helga knew who it was.

Her hand came up of its own accord as though it could reach the man steadily moving away from his home. She caught sight of the greyed out snake on her wrist and let out a sob. "Salazar. What have you done?"


End file.
